Looking for a MC starter kit

NorthGuy

Joined Jun 28, 2014
611
You can program it via an arduino (free) ...
So, you do suggest turning Arduino into a programmer ...

... or usbasp (5usd)
... or buying crappy programmers on eBay.

In my mind, buying a relatively decent programmer such as PICKit3, is a much better investment.

At any rate, once you have a programmer, you can use a normal development environment and you do not need (want?) Arduino any more. There's AVR Studio for AVRs. I've never used it, but people speak very highly of it. And as you said, if you really want to go as cheap as you can, it won't be very expensive to buy a programmer (perhaps even cheaper than Arduino), but you will get what you paid for.
 

David Fowler

Joined Feb 11, 2016
25
I'm a big fan of the PicKit2 as a starting programmer, OK it can't program some of the newer PICs but there are plenty out there that it can. The big bonus with it for me is the UART and Logic tools that comes with it, those two things were invaluable to me when I was getting started.

£10 for a programmer, logic tool and UART tool seems like pretty good value to me.
 

ISB123

Joined May 21, 2014
1,236
Arduino can be turned into a programmer.When you finish with programming the other MCU you simply burn another program on it which turns it into a standard arduino again, you can program PIC 18 with Arduino.
 

dannyf

Joined Sep 13, 2015
2,197
"But it hides way to much of the lower level stuff from you IMHO."

That's only so because you let it. Underneath the arduino environment, you have gcc-avr, which is essentially the same compiler that atmel uses.

I can take my arduino code and compile it and program it to an avr without any problem.
 

NorthGuy

Joined Jun 28, 2014
611
"But it hides way to much of the lower level stuff from you IMHO."

That's only so because you let it. Underneath the arduino environment, you have gcc-avr, which is essentially the same compiler that atmel uses.
Exactly. That's the point. What is underneath Arduino - AVR chip and compilers - is solid. It's the Arduino layer itself which makes it into a toy.
 

GetDeviceInfo

Joined Jun 7, 2009
2,192
Exactly. That's the point. What is underneath Arduino - AVR chip and compilers - is solid. It's the Arduino layer itself which makes it into a toy.
Don't underestimate the power of play. So, does AVR have any parallels to PIC in regards to the OPs quest. Arduino hardware is only a bootloader away from an excellent and inexpensive platform.

Recently I was introduced to embedded systems at school. We used a 8051 and programmed it in assembler (Keil µvision). It was a development board with leds and an LCD. My teacher announced we will move on to use C. My intrest in MCs was sparked and I'm looking for my own kit. I found assembly to be fun and I wish to program with it for a while. I also found to 8051 instructionset rather limited. With all this in mind what starter kit would you advise? PIC looks fun but I don't know if you can program it in assembler. Also the starter kit shouldn't be too expensive (50-100€).
Moving from assembler to C doesn't require a change in core. On the contrary, you may want to stick with the same core to get a good understanding of how the compiler renders your C into machine code. It may not be important on larger resources, but the lowly 8051 is a workhorse and often stretched to the max, where optimization techniques, including assembly are important. With assembly, device spec sheets are more informative than the device itself.

Assembly has its place, but the instruction set isn't what's restrictive, it's not embracing the higher level language. The device core becomes less important compared to developing solutions, and exploring concepts.

I personally have gone the AVR route, with no particular reason. But to be honest, it wouldn't matter in the end what logo was stamped on the IC, other than the cost of getting there.
 
Top